2025 Crypto Boom: Survey Reveals Surging ETF Demand, Staking Frenzy, and Tokenization Tipping Point

Crypto literacy hits all-time highs as investors clamor for ETFs, stake like Vegas card counters, and bet big on tokenizing everything—from real estate to rare memes.

Wall Street scrambles to keep up—turns out blockchain moves faster than SEC paperwork.

Crypto and Blockchain knowledge has increased

The survey showed a 6 percent increase in those responding to the question on how knowledgeable they were in crypto and blockchain. 78 percent of respondents report high or very high levels of knowledge in crypto and blockchain, a 6 percent increase from 2024.

HNWIs showed the highest knowledge levels at 83 percent high or very high. Professional managers reported high levels at 75 percent, followed by a third of institutional investors, with most describing their knowledge levels as neutral.

Trading and brokerage firms, asset and fund managers, external asset managers, as well as multi-family offices and investment banks, showed the highest levels of openness, while banks presented the widest spread ranging from strongly open to not open at all.

The biggest holdings are in Blockchain protocol tokens

The Sygnum survey noted that 85 percent of active crypto respondents hold tokens in blockchain protocols such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. While other allocations include protocols such as BNB Chain, Tron, Sui, Sei, and Cardano. 20 percent hold only LAYER 1 tokens.

Additionally stablecoins are also widely held, with half of respondents leveraging their non-volatility as a market hedge and as a practical on-and offramp to the crypto market.

There was a rise in those holding tokenized assets to 26 percent from 20 percent last year.

HNWIs’ motivation to hold crypto is for yield generation, while professional managers show higher demand for short-term trading opportunities.

The smaller cohort of institutional investors leaned toward portfolio diversification (80 percent), the recognition of crypto as a new alternative asset class (55 percent) and SAFE haven and macro hedge interest (30 percent).

Future crypto allocations

The survey found that 61 percent of respondents plan to increase their allocations given the new ETF approvals, altcoin treasury demand and upcoming crypto market structure bills. Yet a fifth of respondents who plan to increase exposure are undecided when to act.

Meanwhile, more than a third maintain their positions, with 50 percent leaning towards neutral to slightly bearish outlooks, while 56% remain bullish, with only a small minority planning to reduce exposure.

For those who want to increase allocations, 60 percent believe there will be higher returns.

Those maintaining their exposure report diversification as the primary reason, although almost half in this group also expect higher future returns from current positions.

The availability of institutional-grade products has been the biggest change. Only 5 percent mentioned it last year, while this year the figure has risen to a substantial 44 percent among those.

In terms of the 11 percent of respondents who don’t hold crypto, 36 percent plan to allocate, while 44 percent remain undecided and 20 percent have no plans to invest at all.

Yet the survey shows that crypto has lost its superior investment case this year when compared to traditional assets. Sygnum report notes that this is likely due to the strong performances in Gold and equities markets this year.

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